


Fighting Fires

by faithinthepoor



Series: Once Upon a Time [40]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-13
Updated: 2014-07-13
Packaged: 2018-02-08 18:19:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1951305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithinthepoor/pseuds/faithinthepoor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set Following Good Form</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fighting Fires

**Author's Note:**

> In my series this follows my [Fairytale Drabbles](http://archiveofourown.org/works/618763), [Mirror Mirror](http://archiveofourown.org/works/618771), [This Provincial Life](http://archiveofourown.org/works/618775), [Viviane or Nimue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/618809), [Dreams and Wishes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/618851), [All the Better To….](http://archiveofourown.org/works/619484), [Magic Keys](http://archiveofourown.org/works/619497), [Curiouser and Curiouser](http://archiveofourown.org/works/619514), [Snow Blind](http://archiveofourown.org/works/620280), [Spinning Straw](http://archiveofourown.org/works/620288), [Wooden Hearts](http://archiveofourown.org/works/621128), [Poisoned](http://archiveofourown.org/works/622526), [True Love and Other Curses](http://archiveofourown.org/works/625038), [Spellbound](http://archiveofourown.org/works/628806), [Over the Rainbow](http://archiveofourown.org/works/630076), [Facades](http://archiveofourown.org/works/632227), [Lost Girls](http://archiveofourown.org/works/636939), [Monstrosities](http://archiveofourown.org/works/640162), [Love and Lies](http://archiveofourown.org/works/652912), [Something Wicked this Way Comes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/665458), [Dreamscapes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/672345), [Homecomings](http://archiveofourown.org/works/676052), [Test Match](http://archiveofourown.org/works/682287), [Wishful Thinking](http://archiveofourown.org/works/697330), [Absent Friends](http://archiveofourown.org/works/771482), [Small Mercies](http://archiveofourown.org/works/773663), [State of Mind](http://archiveofourown.org/works/778498), [Good Intentions](http://archiveofourown.org/works/802589), [The Sins of Mothers](http://archiveofourown.org/works/820893), [Affairs of the Heart](http://archiveofourown.org/works/855926), [Power Plays](http://archiveofourown.org/works/942825), [Future Plans](http://archiveofourown.org/works/969035), [Crying Wolf](http://archiveofourown.org/works/982369), [The Eye of the Storm](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1004056), [Doomsday Devices](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1155836), [Villains](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1191873), [Attachments](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1223896), [Pain and Pixie Dust](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1284520) and [Absences](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1387075)

She can’t win. It doesn’t matter what she does or how hard she tries, the odds are always stacked against her. It should be better here, at least she can control her magic in Neverland, but apparently having predictable and reliable magic isn’t enough to turn the tables in her favour. In a way it never was but this isn’t the Enchanted Forest, this island has its own unique set of problems.

It thrives on hope, on dreams, on the very things that her dark heart let go of a long time ago. It’s not the place for dark creatures. It’s dangerous for her here. So much more dangerous than it is for the others. Neverland’s light infects her darkness, it gives her hope and then it betrays her.

Under normal circumstances she would know what to do. She would abandon hope, just as it abandoned her, but that is not an option right now. Hope is her enemy but unfortunately it has become a necessary evil because without it she will lose Henry. She knows better than most that things come with a price but some prices are unacceptable – whatever happens, whatever it takes, she will get Henry back.

That cruel bastard hope had let her feel that she was winning, that Henry was within her grasp. Even her unfortunate misstep with the Lost Boy couldn’t dent her confidence. Despite her ultimate triumph that interaction sits firmly in her mind, mocking her and reminding her that her attempts to connect with children are never successful.

The insolent boy is lucky that all she took from him was his heart. She tried to be nice to him. She didn’t have to be, she doesn’t need to worry that you might catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Honey is for those whose vinegar isn’t powerful enough. She shouldn’t have offered him kindness. She shouldn’t have given him the opportunity to throw it back in her face. She should know better than that. He’s just Owen, just like Henry.

People would probably say that these children reject her because she’s evil but she doesn’t think that’s the problem. She showed no malice towards Pan’s minion. Well, not at first. They don’t reject her because she’s evil, they reject her because she’s desperate. Desperate to be better, desperate to be redeemed, desperate to be accepted. For some reason children appear to find that more unpalatable than any of her other crimes.

In retrospect showing a follower of Pan leniency was an error. She barely understands her own child and Pan’s boys are something else entirely. Henry may want nothing to do with her but he clings fiercely to his other “parents” just as she clung to her own father before him. She has no frame for these Lost Boys who abandon those who raised them. It’s not as though she is stranger to abusive and neglectful parents but she would never do what these boys have down. They swear fealty to Pan but they have no understanding of true loyalty. No matter how badly or how often her parents mistreated her she would never have left them to follow some child who wanted to pretend that he is a king.

Her parents were the source of so much of her misery but she loved them. She had ample reason to lose her temper and push her mother through that mirror but she was wracked with guilt from the second her mother disappeared. These boys know no such guilt. She can’t let them influence Henry. She couldn’t bare it if they corrupted him like that.

The Lost Boy didn’t deserve the chocolate she offered him but that action did serve another purpose. It gave her the opportunity to prove to Snow that she is better than Snow gives her credit for. She may have squandered that opportunity when she ripped the boy’s heart from his chest but she has no regrets. If Snow had her way the rest of them would stand around mute while Snow wasted precious time trying to charm the birds from the trees and Henry would suffer as a result. Regina is willing to do what needs to be done to get her son back and she will never, ever, apologise for that.

Talking to the child was getting them nowhere and Regina couldn’t tolerate that. He needed to be silenced and not with words. The decision to take his heart was sound. It was a time for action. The Lost Boy’s words had struck fear into her own heart. Fear, who is the mother of doubt and the enemy of progress. She could not allow that fear to fester so she took his heart to save her own. 

Snow may have registered her protest but in the end Snow didn’t actually try to stop her. Perhaps that was because Snow didn’t have an ally. Emma showed that she was far more sensible than her parents when she put Henry’s safety above all else. Emma’s vote of support, and the fact that she physically restrained Snow, made things go more smoothly than they could have. Thanks to Emma, Regina simply had to roll up her sleeves and do the thing she was created for.

She was happy to have Emma’s assistance and the path of least resistance that it helped to pave but she meant what she said to Snow. She does believe that she’s here to stop Emma from having to give into darkness and she is happy to do so. Regina’s anger towards Emma may border on homicidal at times but she would prefer that Emma die with a pure heart. She is less concerned with the purity of rest of their party, she would have darkened every one of their hearts in order to be able to communicate with her son.

Her living puppet was the perfect medium. He got his half of the compact to Henry and allowed her to see her son. She had to hold her breath as they squashed together to try and get themselves into frame. She knew what was happening was important. They were giving Henry the weapon he needed to fight against Pan’s mind games – they were giving him definitive proof that he was important to his family and that they would do anything for him. Emma went so far as to voice a code name for their rescue mission and Regina felt a surge of affection towards her. As she hurriedly told Henry that she loved him she dropped her guard and allowed her fingers to brush against Emma’s and that is where things went from being a successfully executed plan to a whole world of trouble.

She doesn’t know if it is because of the island or if it’s a side effect of them combining their powers in order to save Storybrooke but touching Emma’s skin had an undeniable effect on her. Not just the surge of lust she has always felt, something magical. Something powerful. She feels as though she is boiling. Her blood is on fire. It arcs through her body and tries to escape from her fingertips. Her fingers burn with the need to touch Emma, to trace every single inch of the blonde’s skin. 

Regina is forced to keep her hands to herself but her mind is consumed with finding a way to get Emma alone. Being with Emma may not be a good idea but she is beyond reason at this point. As far as she is concerned the only two things that exist in the world are Emma and Regina’s need to touch her.

After Hook and Charming returned, and she was forced to witness a reunion kiss between two idiots that she would like to be able to erase from her memory, she was able to steal away. She stands alone, holding a tree for support. Her body shakes uncontrollably as she waits for Emma to come and find her.

As time passes a seed of doubt appears but she will not allow that seed to grow. She refuses to believe that she can be the only one feeling this way. This kind of magic, this kind of intensity, has to be shared.

She wants to break away from the tree and go searching for Emma but her legs no longer seem to work. She is rooted to the spot and her breath comes in short, shallow gasps as her mind is invaded by images of Emma. She closes her eyes and imagines Emma touching her. It doesn’t stop the fire but it lessens the bite of its flames.

In her mind fingers run up her arms as lips dance along the column of her neck. Her own fingers claw into the bark as she imagines teeth nipping at her flesh. The fantasy is so intense that it feels real. Fake breath come hot against her check as though her desire has created a golem to do her biding. She wants to surrender to it but she knows that it isn’t enough. Knows that nothing short of Emma will be enough.

She forces her eyes open and finds Emma standing there. The lips and mouth she felt were not real but the breath was. It coats her face as Emma trembles before her, her eyes dark with desire.

It is painfully obvious that Emma wants this just as badly as Regina does but Emma makes no move to touch her. Regina is not sure exactly what sign Emma is looking for but she hopes that arching and eyebrow and growling, “Well what are you waiting for dear?” will suffice.

Emma hits her with the force of a tsunami. She thought she was already one with the tree but somehow she is slammed against it. Fingers dig at her hips while lips and tongue plunder her mouth. She grabs fistfuls of hair as her lungs burn from both need and lack of oxygen. She will not stop to breathe, she will not surrender to such a mundane impulse, not when Emma’s kisses both fuel and control the fire that is consuming her body.

She is not the not the one to break the kiss and she takes pride in that fact. Emma tears their lips apart and then moves her hands from Regina’s hips to gently cup her face. It should be a calming gesture, something that slows things down, but instead Emma’s tender touch fans the flames within her.

Regina is more than ready to give herself to the fire. For all she cares it can consume her body and soul. She would let it reduce her to nothing but ash if that’s what it takes. Emma’s lips are both her salvation and her destruction and she is no longer sure which she wants more. Whatever the outcome, kissing Emma is her only option.

She leans in to claim Emma’s lips but Emma’s hand pushes her back, “Stop.”

The word makes no sense to her, stopping is not even an option, “Impossible,” she says as she manages to break through Emma’s defences and smack a kiss on her lips.

Emma groans and pushes her back, “We need to talk.”

“That is the last thing we need to do,” she changes her target and manages to latch onto the soft skin of Emma’s neck before she is pushed away again.

“No,” Emma shakes her head, “we can’t do this. Not without full disclosure.”

“Miss Swan,” she breathes into Emma’s ear, “I am more than aware that we are under some sort of magical influence. I really don’t have a problem with that.”

“Never do I, trust me,” Emma’s eyes move from Regina’s face to her chest and she looks as though she is dying to let her hands follow, “but I need to tell you something.”

“Whatever it is, I don’t care,” Regina’s hands have found Emma’s bare arms and the contact is all consuming. She is not sure she could listen to what Emma has to say, even if she wanted to  
.  
“Regina wait,” Emma seems to be screaming but her words barely penetrate Regina’s lust fuelled haze as she skims her fingers down Emma’s arms, “I kissed Hook!”

Just like that she snaps, everything changes. The flames of desire that burned inside her were but a candle compared with the inferno of anger that has replaced them. She has no control over the wave of energy that erupts from her body. She doesn’t even realise that it is happening until she watches Emma being flung through the air and she doesn’t know what to feel when she hears a sickening crunch as Emma’s body collides with a tree and then tumbles lifelessly to the ground.


End file.
